Kansas City Chiefs vs Denver Broncos: Three keys to victory

2. The Chiefs have to stop the run.

A huge part of winning a low scoring defensive game is having a run game on offense that can move the chains and keep the opposing offense off the field. That is exactly what the Broncos have had through three games this season. As I type this NFL.com has them ranked as #3 in the NFL in rushing yards per game with 144.7 yards per game and #5 in the NFL in rushing yards per carry with an average of 5.2 YPC.

Meanwhile, their passing attack under Keenum has been mediocre at best. Keenum is completing 61.1% of his passes for 6.9 yards per attempt, with just three touchdowns and five interceptions. If you compare that to Mahomes’ 66.7% completions, 9.6 yards per attempt, with 13 touchdowns and zero interceptions its easy to see why the Chiefs would want to turn this into a passing contest.

Stopping the Broncos running attack won’t be easy for the Chiefs. Denver seems to have found themselves a hidden gem in undrafted rookie Phillip Lindsay who is averaging exactly six yards per carry so far this season. Lindsay isn’t their only option either as both Royce Freeman and Devontae Booker have seen multiple carries this season as well. The Chiefs meanwhile are allowing the second worst rushing yards per carry in all the NFL with 5.2 YPC.

You can make excuses for the Chiefs poor run defense by saying that they’ve mostly been in nickel and dime packages because of the early leads they’ve opened up on teams. That has allowed opposing running backs to not have to go against a lot of stacked boxes. Still, if the Chiefs want to take Denver out of their game plan and open up another early lead in this game they have got to do a lot better at stopping the run than that 5.2 YPC they’ve allowed on the season so far. If they can do that they’ll force the Denver offense and Case Keenum into more third and long situations and that is a win for Kansas City.

Finally, the X-factor for keeping their win streak going….